Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

For mothers day we surprised mom by taking her over to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

I was pretty excited about this day, mostly because if you haven't noticed I'm super duper in love with animals!!

Not only was it an awesome time to look at cute and vicious animals, I actually learned a few things I didn't know prior to this visit.
Such as hippos are extremely lazy and just kind of lay there in the sunshine. Or how it's awkward when an owl stares directly at you without blinking, or that even the Florida Cougar is rarely scene, and when it is, it's sleeping in a tree.




Also, did I mention we got to ride along the river on a boat? Yes, that was pretty cool, and there was even a 'tour guide' who would speak through the microphone and tell us about the things we're seeing,
such as "oh that's a Anhinga bird over there" or "look at those snapping turtles over there by that rock" and so on.


Also, It was Joshua's first boat ride! It was such a fun day!! :) We also went out to eat at a Japanese Resturant afterwards, the food was good <3 I'm glad mom had a nice Mother's Day... it made us all very happy.

Crayfish Crawl and fun at the lake...

We are living in Dublin, Virginia which is actually where Claytor Lake State Park is located! Joshua and I have been going swimming almost every evening during the week, there's nothing like chilling off in the lake after a hot humid day! We enjoy swimming at the lake in the evenings for two reasons - one it's not super hot and the sun isn't giving you a sunburn, and two- quite often there is hardly anyone there! Usually at least a few kids to play with, but for the most part it's not crowded like in the afternoon (when there is a tons of people on the beach!)

(a fish we managed to catch)

Something cool that the State Park does, is they offer educational wildlife programs throughout the summer. Some of the things we've done (so far) is made Eco-Friendly Bird feeders, learned about Owls at the "Owl Prowl" and most recently participated in what is called the "Crayfish Crawl." These little freshwater crustaceans can be found in the lake here (and are also known as Crawdads or even craw-fish.) My cousin India is the lovely lady who teaches and offers these wonderful programs, and today we started off by learning all about these Crayfish and how they live, such is what they eat, how they find food, and so on. Then we headed off to the water with our little nets and attempted to catch some crayfish!

After looking in the water for awhile, none of us seemed to be having any luck, but then I lifted a rock and there are two crayfish just hanging out in the water! A total of 5 were caught this afternoon, and I have to say it was a very enjoyable time! These five in particular happened to be small, but I've seen them grow very large in size.